Honolulu

Honolulu’s population grew in the first few decades of the 1800’s from a few hundred people living in thatched huts to about 3,000 in 1823. Missionaries erected the city’s first wooden buildings in the 1820’s. Starting in the 1840’s, stones were used in construction. With so many foreigners moving to Honolulu during the late 1800’s, rapid growth occurred, and the remaining thatched huts and old paths were replaced with prominent structures and patterned streets. By the 1900’s, control of the city was dominated by the ever-increas-ing tide of Caucasians. The early 1900’s also marked the beginning of a time when millions of post-cards were mailed daily throughout Honolulu and the world.

Milton A. Masing is a retired teacher, a former director of a public library’s local history and genealogy department, and a charter member and past president of the Dearborn County, Indiana, Cemetery Commission. He cur-rently holds memberships in the Historic Hawaii Foundation, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, and the Dearborn County Histor-ical Society. He is also a 60-year collector of vintage postcards.